Despite the rain, gloom and chill of Sunday evening, hundreds of celebrants from the Cape and beyond gathered together to memorialize, "public leadership and the power of imagination," said Rev. Bernard Harris of Zion Union Church in Hyannis.

The Jan. 14 celebration will be broadcasted on Comcast channel 98 by CCCC. Check local listings for broadcast times.

Although Harris was describing newly elected Governor Deval Patrick, a guest at the event, the ideas of leadership and imagination pervaded the night's celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Bringing humor, hope, song and leadership together, Harris, Patrick and Rev. Bruce Wall of Boston joined young and old, members of churches and synagogues, leaders of families and Cape leaders at Cape Cod Community College to remember the legacy of the civil rights leader, and to try and create a new legacy of their own.

"There was great excitement and energy in the building," said Michael Gross, communications director at CCCC.

Among the record-breaking attendance of nearly 700 were not only those who came to remember King and his dream, but also those who, over four decades later, still felt the impact.

Youth speakers Annie Larrson of Orleans United Methodist Church and Spencer Ewing of Zion Union Church, too young to remember the immediate effects of King's life and death, shared how their lives had been affected by King -- and that they believed much still needed to be done.

Also remembering the civil rights leader alongside members of the audience was Patrick, who saw King speak as a child in the early 1960s. Although he didn't recall King's words, Patrick said, there was, "so much hope. And hope is a tangible thing."

A similar hope was felt in this audience, as well, through Patrick's speech, Zion Union's song and Wall's call to community involvement and improvement.

Despite the differences in the audience, Patrick's speech urged all members to look to King's example of philanthropy.

King's legacy "has made us a stronger and freer and more democratic nation." However, he said, "there are people hungry and left out and left back on the Cape and all over the commonwealth and all over the country."

Patrick, whose own commitments to community, according to Harris, span from aiding a United Nations project in Sudan in the late 1970s to aiding Wall's work against gang violence in Boston, told the audience he believed each member could make a difference.

"Everybody can be great because everybody can serve," said Patrick.

That spirit continued through the evening with Wall's words.

Speaking of his childhood in Boston, overcoming the pressures of an urban society through church and service, Wall also urged audience members to work toward improving their societies.

Wall's personal goal, he said, is to decrease violence toward and between young people in urban areas.

Wall's church, Global Ministry Christian Church in Dorchester, continues King's idea of peaceful protest by setting up vigils in honor of slain teens in Boston.

Patrick, he said, had shown his dedication as well by visiting the sites on several evenings.

Also present Sunday night were promises similar to those made in 1963.

"1963 is not an end but a beginning," said CCCC Dean Rose Pena-Warfield, reading from King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

Early on in the evening, Harris mentioned a promise Patrick made early last year to return to the Cape for the King celebration the Black Ministerial Alliance, a group both Harris and Wall belong to, would hold in January.

Because Patrick grew up with, "limited means but limitless hope," said Harris, he believed the then-campaigning Patrick would be the perfect speaker.

In turn, Harris made a promise to Patrick, as well, calling him governor before the campaign was over and well before his inauguration.

Although the celebration was filled with jubilation, hope and the legacy of King, there was also a sense that the work remains unfinished.

Despite the passing of 44 years, Patrick, Harris and Wall all agreed that the civil rights leader's vision had yet to be completely realized.

If King were alive today, Wall said, "He would be calling our nation to peace and forgiveness."

Patrick agreed, and said that, across the nation and the Commonwealth, "we have work left to do."